While reading Percy Jackson and the Olympians for the fourth time, I took a sudden interest in the currency of the demigods. Drachmas seemed like the quarters I flipped into fountains as a kid, but I began to wonder how drachmas functioned in ancient times.
The Greeks credited the nation of Lydia for the invention of the first coinage in the 6th century BC, and the area of Aegina began to implement coins around the same time period, which were famously shaped liketurtles. More city states such as Athens and
the double octadrachm. The coins were made throughout the different city states often from the alloy electron, or from copper or bronze. An imprint or engraving was placed on all coins to verify their legitimacy and mark the polis or city-state it was minted in. The designs or engravings on the coins give insight both into the identity of the cities as a whole and a depiction of many mythological phenomena. Coin making was an imprecise art, and the alignment of designs and the shape of the coin has allowed historians to trace coins back to original origins.
While I may not be using my nickels and dimes to summon Iris’s rainbow message, I do use a remnant of Greek society nearly every day. The Greeks popularized coins and assured the continued use of numismatics through modern day. If money could talk, I’m sure it would give a nod to its forefather the drachma.
Secretary Ana Leyendecker
Money talks
Numismatics in Ancient Greece
As it turns out, trading using precious metals began years before the creation of the drachma. Goods were sometimes exchanged with bars of precious metal, which later developed into rods of precious metal called drattomai which were more portable. From the original bars and rods of metal came the idea of something small and easy to exchange-coinage.
Corinth adopted this method of trade because it was an easy way to pay mercenary soldiers and encourage maritime exchange. The Athenian coinage, stamped with an owl, has been found in areas as far as Egypt, Palestine, and Arabia.
The drachma served as the base unit for the coinage system, and, as coins increased in weight, the value increased. Coins ranged from the obol to
Winter 2023
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